Teriyaki Chicken Sandwiches
I have an ongoing list of potential recipes where I can jot down ideas as I think of them, then when I craft Meatwave menus, I am and picking and choosing from that list that fall into a theme—I like crafting theme menus because it helps with cost and prep when a lot of ingredients I need overlap between dishes. I think teriyaki chicken sandwiches has been on my list for well over ten years, and while I've had many Meatwaves where they would have fit in quite well, I think I never made them because they felt a little too obvious and more than enough recipes already exist for them. At a tiki-themed Meatwave last summer though, my list of fitting recipes was running low and that lead to these sandwiches finally making their debut.
Running low on recipes was only one reason I turned to these sandwiches, the other reason was that I had a batch of teriyaki sauce sitting in the fridge waiting for a use. While you can use store bought sauce here, I personally like making my own teriyaki sauce if I have the time. It's not much effort since you merely have to toss a handful of ingredients into a pot, but then simmering that down into that thick teriyaki glaze does take some time, albeit mainly "inactive" time.
For the chicken, I opted for thighs because they're tastier and less prone to drying out than breasts. I had picked up King's Hawaiian buns for these sandwiches and those were a size somewhere between a slider and regular burger bun, which had me cutting most of the thighs in half so they would be roughly the size of the bun when done. Depending on the size of the buns you have on hand, the chicken thighs may be the right size already straight out of the package.
I had originally planned to season the chicken with a spice mixture before grilling, but then changed course and created a marinade instead. I used some of the teriyaki sauce as the base and thought this would be a great way to start to inject some of that sweet and savory flavor but also build upon it by adding in ginger, rice, vinegar, sesame oil, and white pepper.
I let the chicken marinate overnight, and during that time I broke down a pineapple into rings by cutting away the peel, slicing into rounds, and then removing the core with a cookie cutter. Once I had the fire lit to make the sandwiches, the first thing I did was grill the pineapple until it developed some good browning on both sides.
Next the chicken went on and I grilled the thighs over direct heat until just cooked through. Despite the teriyaki marinade being pretty thin, the chicken gained a decent glazed looked during this initial cooking stage, but I enhanced it further by giving all the chicken a brushing of the thick teriyaki sauce close to when they were done cooking.
The the final step I took was to adorn each thigh with a slice of pepper jack cheese, covered the grill, and let the cheese melt. At this point the chicken was done and I moved each piece to buns that I had topped with some mixed greens first.
Leaning even more into the tiki theme I had going on, I thought ham would be a good addition to these sandwiches, so I picked up some of my favorite honey-glazed ham for these sandwiches. I didn't want it to be cold though, so I quickly warmed each ham slice on the grill before moving them over to lay atop the chicken.
The last step was to add on pineapple slices and red onions. I also drizzled on some extra teriyaki sauce, which didn't hurt, but the chicken had such a strong teriyaki flavor, I didn't feel like it was entirely necessary.
I probably shouldn't let the fact that a recipe already has a lot of representation online stop me from making it, because I think my life would have been all the better if these sandwiches had entered even sooner. The double does of teriyaki via the marinade and glaze ensured that the sweet, savory, and salty flavor of this Japanese sauce was present in each bite. That started them off on delicious footing which was built upon by the sweet grilled pineapple and ham, while the lettuce and onion added a touch of freshness and crunch. Sweetness was the dominant trait of these sandwiches but the pepper jack did lend a touch of contrasting heat along with a creaminess that would have been missing otherwise, especially since these sandwiches didn't have any additional sauce, like mayo. They were definitely a hit and something I can see myself making over and over again.
